The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-10-13
bat inclination and disposition have

Il
but inclination and disposition have
been absent.
1t cannot be claimed that the facul-
ties of woman are under duress. for
the tendency from subordinatiOn to Il
equality has been irresistible, and her
emancipation has long been complete. i
The fatalities Of sex and the obstacles
of temperament are the only Obstruct-
ions to her unrestrained competition
with man in every field of physical or
mental action. Christianity, eo-operat-
ing with the spirit of the age, has /
abolished injustice, and removed the i
degrading serYitudes imposed upon her /
by the ignorance and prejudice or man /
kind. She can practice law or medl- |
cine, preach the gospel, engage in the /
pursuits of commerce and business, |
participate in politics, write books, edit |
newspapers, paint pictures, carve stat
ues, build railroads, cultivate the soil,
toll in the field, the quarry. and the
mine if she will. The world is hos
pitable to her thoughts and to her
laborS.
The question of suffrage belongs,
under the Constitution, exclusively to
the states. Congress has no power to
confer or limit suffrage except in the
bia. Each state now has the right to
grant full suffrage to women whenever
majority of its electors desire. No
amendment to the Constitution is ne
cessary, nor could it have any other eff
| feet except to force the enfranchlse-
ment of women upon reluctant states
that are not prepared for it, and do
not wish for it, under the penalty OF a
reduction of representation in Con-
gress and the Electoral College. Why
the proponents of equal suffrage appeal
to Congress, rather than to the state
Legislatures, by whom alone the appeal
can be made effectual, is not clearly
perceptible. Their reply to this inter
rOgation is that woman has as much
right to the ballot as the negro. The
Fifteenth Amendment was as much
war measure as the draft, OF the legal
tender act. The negro was enfran-
chised by the states and not by Con-
gress. The alternative made the pro-
cess compulsory for obvious reasons;
but those who pretend that there Is
any similarity between the present con-
ditiOn of American women and the
, status of the freedmen at the close OF
the war are either ignorant or insincere.
The abolition of slavery by the Thlr-
teenth Amendment, in 1865, was APP
parently unaccompanied by any pur-
pose to interfere with the control of
! suffrage by the states. The Con-
gressional debates disclose no such in
7
, ificatiOn, by the people, of the Emancl-
| patton ProclamatiOns of September p,
1862. and January l, 1868. The en-
, | reimbursement of the freedmen was not
then contemplated. The idea was re-
pugnant even to the radical element IN
the dominant party, which had been
rendered homogeneous by the de-
gent and wealthy classes in the South.
! who had exclusively held the political
! power of that section till the close OF
, the rebellion, were reluctant to sur
! render their prerogatiVes, and it soon
became obvious that the rights of the
negro were not to be adequately pro-
tected in the conquered states. 1t was
, also evident that the liberation of the
slaves would increase the political
! power of the South unless the negroes
: were made citizens and voters. These
convictions led to the adoption of the
Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, and
the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870,
which, with the Reconstruction Act OF
March 2, 1867, cOerced the seeding
, states into negro suffrage as condition
, precedent for their restoration TO the
Union. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth.
and Fifteenth Amendments to the
Constitution were incident to the war.
Their advocates were consistent and
: logical. But there is no logic in poll
tics except the logic of events, and,
! Judging by events, it must be admitted
that thus far the experiment of negro
suffrage in the South under the Con-
stitutional amendments has been an
absolute and unqualified failure. None
, of the anticipationS of its promoters
have been realized. This declaration
does not imply that the negro is not
competent to vote, nor that he should
not vote. But the South, having OBJ
u AI,s -, od6 moi
of the lower House of Congress, and an
: equal increment in the Electoral Col
lege, by the operation of the Four
2 teenth Amendment, has practically
1 nulIified the Fifteenth Amendment,
and neither educates the negro nor per-
mitS him to vote. Political power III
that part of the Republic is as ex-
clusively in the hands of the whites as
| it was ia 1860, and the indications are
i that it will so continue for an indefinite
i period in the future. The national
authority has been exhausted, and
; nothing remains but the final appeal to
4 the national conscience. SO formId-
!, able has the danger become, that the
I most active champions of equal suffrage
for women are also the most ardent
0 supporters of the recent measures fol
t national aid to common schools, whose
!. avowed purpose is the education of the
q colored voters of the South, ut the eX-
!, pense of the public treasury, upon the
: ground that their Ignorance IS an in
= tStant and constant menace to conStltu'
f tional government and civil liberty
J, Under their cogent appeals the Senate
Q of the United States passed a bill ap.
!, propriating SIT 900 goo for this purpose
i and there is little doubt that it would
t have passed the House of Representa-
: tiVeS had it not been for the obStruct-
g i've parliamentary tactics of its enemies
i in both political parties.
= By the statistics OF the tenth census
t we are informed that the cOlored males
g in the United States above the age Of
o 81, who are unable to write, numbered
f or Isl, or SO 7-l0 per cent. of the en-
}, tire class. The white males similarly
o disqualified were 1856 $50, or $40 pei
d cent. of the voting population. 1t Is al
e1 appalling reflection that, in govern
+ ment theoretically based upon intel
t ligent citizenship, such an enormous
l. proportion of the electors are destitute
t of the rudimentS of education. The
g adoption of the proposed Sixteenth
Amendment would add to this stu
!. pendous mass of illiteracy, coloreC
e females l lbs, 749, or ~ 6-10 per cent. o.
, those who would be enfranchlsed, anC
q white females l ,169,0 O4, being IL pei
! cent. of those who would be entitled Il
3 the ballot; a grand total of nearly
: 2 300, 900 illiterate and disqualified
q electors, in addition to the existing
+ millions whose condition is a confessed
! menace to the perpetuity and stability
: OF free popular government. Those
n therefore, who contend that Their
4 should be a sixteenth amendment be
4 cause there was a fifteenth, and thai
4 all women should be allowed to votG
n because the liberated slaves were en-
: franchised, are not felicitous in theil
q argument.
e Suffrage, under our political system
; has been extended to the extreme limit
:. consistent with national safety. We
n have reached the danger line. 1t is toC
+ late to cure the evils and correct the
: mistakes of the past. They are ir
9 remediable and irreparable. The COW.
;, ards and the demagogues of all political
: parties have been emulOuS in obSe-
|. quiOus subserviency to the most dan
IL,